Sorry, couldn't resist. I grew up in a church that used the little cups. When I was a chaplains' assistant in the Army I had to fill those up. Worse, I had to wash them all too.

There are pumps you can attach to the bottle, sort of like liquid soap pumps, for filling communion cups. As for washing them, get plastic baskets, fill with the cups, and submerge them in bleach water. Swish-swish. Rinse.

Sorry, couldn't resist. I grew up in a church that used the little cups. When I was a chaplains' assistant in the Army I had to fill those up. Worse, I had to wash them all too.

There are pumps you can attach to the bottle, sort of like liquid soap pumps, for filling communion cups. As for washing them, get plastic baskets, fill with the cups, and submerge them in bleach water. Swish-swish. Rinse.

That is much easier.

Unfortunatly one of the chaplains I worked for wouldn't let me do that because his wife didn't trust it to be as clean as individually washing them with a cloth. He and she were a whole lot of SS. Because I was single they thought he could tell me how to run my personal life, including what I read, where I travelled, etc. I'm stopping now. He's one of those bosses from whom I learned how not to treat staff.

I grew up Methodist. Communion isn't an everyday thing in that denomination, and one of my first times was memorable. My friend decided she really liked the bread and grape juice and went up after services asking for seconds. The poor usher was flabbergasted

I grew up Methodist. Communion isn't an everyday thing in that denomination, and one of my first times was memorable. My friend decided she really liked the bread and grape juice and went up after services asking for seconds. The poor usher was flabbergasted

It took DH about six months to find the right way to ask where our church got their communion bread because it was just that good (Kroger's store-brand Hawaiian bread, if anyone's curious!)

Sorry, couldn't resist. I grew up in a church that used the little cups. When I was a chaplains' assistant in the Army I had to fill those up. Worse, I had to wash them all too.

Well, me too! Although I got my Chaplain to buy disposable cups when we had an out break of a flu type illness. Then back to washing up!

My church uses little disposable cups. They are filled by hand (no pump) from the juice bottle before worship every Sunday morning. When I was a kid, we would snag them after church, my mother would wash them, and we would play church with the cups (filled with our own grapejuice) and saltine crackers.

So, on one occasion, there was a huge bull standing in the road. The van couldn't get around said animal. The driver let out a brief Beep. The bull stood there. Longer honk. Nothing. Someone in the van calls out "Bump it!" The driver slowly moves forward and pushes on the animal with his front bumper.

The bull backed up, put his head down and BANGED into the front of the van. The driver tried to back out of the way before the bull could do it again, but the engine fell out. With a huff, the animal lumbered away, proud head in the air.

Never, ever hurry a one-ton creature with an attitude.

Fortunately, I didn't have to learn that the hard way. I was really late to work one day, however, because there was a Brahma bull the size of a VW Bus standing right in front of the gate to my property. (It's open range where I live.) He'd found a nice patch of grass right there and no amount of horn honking, shouting, dogs barking, or poking with a stick through the fence could induce him to move until he was good and ready. I just had to sit in the car and wait until he decided to mosey on down the road.

My next-door-neighbor was recently an SS of the Extremely Stupid subspecies. He decided to take his AK-47 into the desert across the dirt road from his house and start blasting away. Here are some features of this patch of desert:- It's open range, so there are cows grazing out there.- It's a heavily used thoroughfare for border crossers.- Because of the above, there are often Border Patrol agents there.- Across the patch of desert are a park and a Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting place.- It's surrounded by roads.

It is not an ideal location in which to indiscriminately fire a weapon.

Bonus stupidity: There is a firing range just a few miles down the road.

I grew up Methodist. Communion isn't an everyday thing in that denomination, and one of my first times was memorable. My friend decided she really liked the bread and grape juice and went up after services asking for seconds. The poor usher was flabbergasted

It took DH about six months to find the right way to ask where our church got their communion bread because it was just that good (Kroger's store-brand Hawaiian bread, if anyone's curious!)

When I was elementary school age, I was a communion SS. I grew up in a Presbyterian church, and our particular church only did communion every 3 months. Most of the P churches in our area would get the bread from one particular bakery, which would make huge sheets of shortbread. These were scored so that you can break them into smaller pieces.

In other words, we had cookies as our communion bread. My Mom would let fidgety me leave church once during the service, where I usually just went to the restroom or explored around for a few minutes (I knew the limit of my time "out"). While exploring one glorious Sunday, I found where they stored the leftover communion bread - the freezer downstairs in the kitchen where no one was on a regular Sunday. And where no one would see me joyfully helping to "dispose" of the leftovers.

Former Catholic, now Episcopalian here, and wine was always used in the Catholic churches and Episcopal churches I've been to (a whole 2). But the alcohol content is so low that I can't imagine even a mouthful would really do much for anyone. (though I could understand a recovering alcoholic abstaining)

In our church you have the choice of either taking a sip from the cup or dipping your wafer in the wine and taking both in at once.

Logged

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

That man would be sorely disappointed if he did communion at my church. We use grape juice.

Ah ... Methodist!!

Nope! Baptist. My mom is Methodist though!

Catholic here. When I made my first communion the wine was really grape juice. Our priest at the time was a recovering alcoholic.

The Monsignor in my church when I was growing up was also a recovering alcoholic. He used grape juice during communion, but regular wine was used for the congregation. It was heavily emphasized in the altar boys' training not to forget where the grape juice was kept and to NEVER mix up the 2 bottles!!